After President Trump was pressed on rising consumer prices and slowing economic growth, he defended his tariff policies by claiming they had spurred record investment in the United States.
“I think we probably have close to $9 trillion of investments coming into this country,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press that aired Sunday. “If you look at other presidents, there’s never been anything like that.”
He has also repeatedly claimed that he secured more investment in his first two months than President Biden did in four years.
Neither claim is supported by evidence, CBS News Confirmed found. While companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in planned investments since Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the White House has not provided data showing the total approaches $9 trillion.
Additionally, a CBS News review found that some investments highlighted by the White House were announced before Mr. Trump’s reelection. The comparison to the Biden administration is also misleading: the president is citing future investments pledges, while contrasting them with a narrower list of projects that were in the works or completed by the end of his predecessor’s term.
Here’s a breakdown of the claims.
Some investments Trump claims credit for were announced under Biden
The White House on April 29 said Mr. Trump had secured $5 trillion of U.S. investment in his first 100 days, and published a partial list titled “The Trump Effect” — which it said demonstrated “his America First economic policies have sparked trillions of dollars in new investment.”
That list totals closer to $2 trillion from private companies, and around $5 trillion if commitments from foreign countries are included. The basis for the president’s $9 trillion claim is unclear and the administration has not explained the discrepancy.
A closer look at the White House list also shows some of the investments had been announced before Mr. Trump took office.
The list initially included a $4.1 billion commitment from Novelis, a Georgia-based aluminum company, to build a plant in southern Alabama. But construction for that project began in October 2022 and the $4.1 billion total investment was detailed in the company’s February 2024 financial report. CBS News asked the White House on May 5 why the project was included; the administration did not answer the question, but by midday May 6 the project had been removed from the website.
The Trump administration also claimed credit for a $1.5 billion pledge by Corning to invest in its solar products facility in Michigan. A company spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that $900 million of this funding was announced months before Mr. Trump assumed office. On April 29, Corning announced an additional $600 million investment, bringing the total to $1.5 billion.
Likewise, the White House listed Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to spend $55 billion over the next four years, but a company spokesperson confirmed that total includes a $2 billion investment — announced last October — in a facility in Wilson, North Carolina.
The list also includes the Stargate Project, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative announced by Open AI and Japan-based Softbank on Jan. 21, which had been in development for at least a year before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. The companies said $100 billion would be deployed “immediately,” but offered few specifics on how or where the money would be spent.
Comparing to investments under Biden
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he attracted more investment in two months than Biden did in four years, suggesting he brought in trillions in a matter of weeks while casting doubt that the former president secured even $1 trillion during his term.
But there’s no clear evidence to support his claim. A White House spokesperson said the president was referring to a December 2024 report from the Biden White House, which said the private sector committed at least $1 trillion to clean energy and manufacturing projects during Biden’s term.
However, Biden’s list of investments highlighted “a selection of private-sector investments in 21st century industries” including green energy, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals, based on project announcements in specific locations or factories under construction. The data on Biden’s “Investing in America” spreadsheet also showed projects that closely resemble some on Mr. Trump’s list.
By comparison, the Trump administration’s list includes broader, less specific investment pledges across a variety of industries — many without clear timelines or locations.
For example, Mr. Trump’s list highlights Apple’s recent $500 billion pledge to U.S. manufacturing and training. However, as previously reported by the Washington Post, Apple also announced a $430 billion investment early in Biden’s term, including a North Carolina engineering hub that was paused in 2024, and the Biden administration’s report does not include any Apple investments in its tally.
However, experts caution that announcements about planned investments don’t guarantee action.
“Companies often will make announcements to essentially curry favor with an incoming administration to show how committed they are to the United States,” said Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, which tracks clean energy investment in the U.S. “It’s not unusual whether it was President Trump or President Biden or President Obama.”
Presidents from both parties have claimed credit for projects started under their predecessors. For instance, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced investments during Mr. Trump’s first term, some of which contributed to the construction of manufacturing facilities highlighted by the Biden White House investment report.
During his term, Biden signed major pieces of legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which included $24 billion in tax credits to attract private investors in hopes of driving domestic manufacturing commitments.
Such incentives may continue to fuel further projects during Trump’s term, according to Nigro, provided they remain in place — but the long-term impact of federal policy, including under both Biden and Trump, may take years to assess.
“It’s very hard to attach these new investments that have been announced as being tied directly to policies of the Trump administration. It’s frankly just too early,” Nigro said.
contributed to this report.
More from CBS News
